• Slow Horses

  • Slough House, Book 1
  • By: Mick Herron
  • Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
  • Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (3,447 ratings)

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Slow Horses  By  cover art

Slow Horses

By: Mick Herron
Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
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Publisher's summary

Slough House is a dumping ground for British intelligence agents who've screwed up cases in any number of ways - by leaving a secret file on a train or blowing a surveillance. River Cartwright, one such "slow horse", is bitter about his failure and about his tedious assignment transcribing cell phone conversations.

When a young man is abducted and his kidnappers threaten to broadcast his beheading live on the Internet, River sees an opportunity to redeem himself.

Is the victim whom he first appears to be? And what's the kidnappers' connection with a disgraced journalist? As the clock ticks on the execution, River finds that everyone has his own agenda.

©2010 Mick Herron (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

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What listeners say about Slow Horses

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1,707
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  • 3 Stars
    449
  • 2 Stars
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  • 1 Stars
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Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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  • 4 Stars
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  • 3 Stars
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  • 2 Stars
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    89
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1,591
  • 4 Stars
    835
  • 3 Stars
    388
  • 2 Stars
    165
  • 1 Stars
    114

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Fun premise, Slow start, excellent entertaiinment.

Terrific narrator. Confusing in the beginning because of the many names and characters but everything eventually snaps into focus. At turns tense and frightening, funny and sharp and, for me, an American reader who knows nothing about British spyfare, interesting and new. An extremely satisfying ending. Highly recommend.

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96 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

those Brits

This is as convoluted as many MI5 narratives, where no one is to be trusted save the down-and-out, but no one will believe them until it is too late. The story hangs together and has some satisfying moments, but it's a bit exhausting to jump around from storyline to storyline among so many loathsome characters all of whom should know and be better. After a while I just don't care any more . . .

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81 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

fantastic

well written. suspenseful and humorous with an edge and a real dose of reality. the perfect kind of spy novel.

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71 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A bit of a slow start but worth sticking with

A lot of exposition in the first half to establish cast of characters but the plot really kicks in the second half. Well written and witty and Gerard Doyle, who is perfectly paired with Adrian McKinty's Irish crime fiction, is excellent here as well.

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61 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great Alternative Spyware Story

Great British spy story - battle between bureaucratic office politics players and carreer screw ups lead by a seedy unattractive has been. No James Bond in sight but great characters. Then of course there is kidnapping, murder and the threat of a live streamed beheading to keep things moving.

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38 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Couldn't get into it

Way too many characters and switching back and forth without notice. I just couldn't get into the story. I finished it out but didn't really enjoy it.

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37 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Love Slow Horses

Best book I have read (listened to ) in a while. Great characters. Looking forward to book 2 of the series.

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35 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Superb, but...

Loved this book, but it's hard to follow. I wish Audible could give a list of characters somewhere for all the titles they carry. Sometimes there are a few in reviews or the "more" section, but overall it is difficult to keep up with the characters.

The flow of this book skipped about as well making it I think more difficult to follow in the audio version.

Overall, enjoyed this and the interesting foreign turn of a phrase and earthy descriptions.

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31 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
  • B
  • 05-30-17

Thanks that there's more!

This author is new to me. Finishing what was recently released, and labelled as the first of a series, I assumed I'd have to wait for more. Not so!

Good, complex story. You have to listen closely to pick up scene and character voice changes - probably facilitated by text spacing in the printed version. But well worth the effort.

On to the next one!

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22 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Just an ok listen for me

I read the reviews; thought I might enjoy. It does get off to a slow start. Follow the characters; whose in and whose out. Not all that enjoyable for me. I am glad if others liked it.

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15 people found this helpful